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Maple Syrup Questions & Answers

When is maple syrup tapping and harvesting season?

Maple sugar season in New England normally starts in the late winter and ends in the early spring. There is no set day for maple syrup tapping to begin. The sugar maple’s sap starts to flow after a hard freeze. The best time for maple sap collection is when nights are freezing cold and are followed by sunny and rather warm days that are between 40 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit. On days when these conditions are not reached, the flow of sap will be slow. When optimum conditions are reached, the sap will flow quickly. Some days a maple syrup producer who is using buckets for collection doesn’t even need to check the sap buckets. Other days, he or she should check often so that the buckets don’t run over! The entire sap collection season only lasts from three to four weeks. When the temperature remains above freezing, or when the maple trees begin to form buds, it’s time to stop collecting sap from the trees. If maple syrup is made from sap collected once buds have begun to form on the maple trees, the syrup will smell bad and have a poor flavor.

How long does maple syrup last?

Maple syrup never spoils! This is due to the high concentration of sugar in maple syrup. Maple syrup should be kept in the refrigerator once it’s opened so as to discourage mold from growing on the syrup. Should mold grow on maple syrup, it’s safe and easy to remove. Just scoop the mold off the top of the syrup with a spoon and discard the mold. Another way of removing the mold is to strain the maple syrup into a clean container through a piece of cheesecloth. Maple syrup kept in a cold place such as a refrigerator is less likely to grow mold than maple syrup kept in a cupboard or other warm place.

Does maple syrup need to be refrigerated?

Maple syrup does not really need to be refrigerated. However, refrigerating maple syrup will retard the growth of mold. If a container of unrefrigerated maple syrup is not checked often, enough mold may grow in the syrup, to ruin the flavor of the syrup. As explained in the last question, this mold is easily removed and not harmful. But why look for trouble? It’s best to just keep maple syrup in the refrigerator or other cool place. Maple syrup may also be frozen. Is maple syrup gluten free?

Real maple syrup, unlike maple-flavored products, is always gluten free. Those who are on gluten-free diets should never substitute maple-flavored products, such as pancake syrup, for real maple syrup. In fact real maple syrup is so delicious that maple flavored syrup should never be substituted for genuine maple syrup!

I have a bottle of maple cream that had dark brown cream leak out of the jar and down the side. Is this normal and is the maple cream safe to eat?

The cream is still fine. It is normal for maple cream to separate and when it does it expands and can leak out the side. The best way to prevent it is to keep in the refrigerator.

How do you know when the maple syrup is done?

When making maple syrup, there are several ways to tell when the sap has boiled long enough to become syrup. First of all, there’s a spoon test. If you are boiling maple sap and wondering if it’s close to becoming syrup, dip a spoon into the boiling sap and watch the sap (or syrup) drip back into the pan. If the sap still needs to boil more, the sap will fall off the spoon in separate droplets. When the syrup starts to run off the spoon in a sheet or a stream, then it’s almost done. It will also start to look more like syrup and less like sap at this point. If you think the syrup is done, take it off the fire and let it cool a bit. As it cools it should start to thicken if it has turned into syrup. If the syrup is still not thick enough it can be returned to the heat and boiled some more.

In professional maple syrup production, the maple syrup maker will boil anywhere from about five gallons to 13 gallons of sap down to about a quart of maple syrup. When the syrup reaches 7 degrees Fahrenheit over the boiling point of water (212 degrees F), or 219 degrees F, the syrup should be done. This can be “iffy” though because the boiling temperature of water changes with air pressure and the weather.

The most certain way to tell if maple sap has become maple syrup is to use a hydrometer. A hydrometer measures the amount of sugar in the syrup. When the sap reaches 66.9% sugar, it is then maple syrup.

Maple syrup that is boiled too long will crystallize and maple syrup that isn’t boiled long enough will spoil quickly and will be watery because the concentration of sugar in the syrup will be too low. When maple syrup is cooked longer, so that it crystallizes, other maple products like maple sugar or maple butter or maple candy are produced.

Which maple tree do you get syrup from?

There are three different species of maple that produce the kind of sap from which maple syrup is usually made. This is because these three species of maple have very high sugar contents in their sap. They are the sugar maple (Acer saccharum), the black maple (Acer nigrum), and the red maple (Acer rubrum.)Red maples offer a shorter sugar season because they tend to bud earlier than either sugar or black maples.

There are few other species of maple that produce sap which can be used to make maple syrup. These are the Manitoba maple (Acer negrundo), the silver maple (Acer sacharinum), and the bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum.)

How long do you have to boil sap to make it into syrup?

The answer is “It all depends.” There is no official time for how long it takes for maple sap to become maple syrup. There are a number of reasons for this. There are different amounts of sugar in each batch of maple sap that is boiled. Maple sap contains between 1 and 5 percent sugar. The syrup must be boiled down to 66.9% sugar. If the maple sap being boiled contains less sugar to begin with, it will need to be boiled longer than sap that has a higher concentration of syrup. The boiling point of the water in the sap – sap being between 95 and 99 percent water – varies depending on the barometer and the weather.

In general, the length of time it takes to boil maple sap to maple sugar depends on the efficiency of the evaporator. A small evaporator (a pan which is about 2 feet by 6 feet), can boil about 25 gallons of sap per hour and a larger evaporator (6 feet by 18 feet) can boil up to 380 gallons per hour.

What does a gallon of maple syrup weigh?

By law, a gallon of pure maple syrup weighs eleven pounds. Maple syrup may also be no less than 66% sugar.

Is maple syrup a good substitute for sugar?

Maple syrup is a good substitute for sugar. It can be substituted for sugar in cooking by substituting one cup of maple syrup for one cup of sugar. For each cup of maple syrup substituted, the liquid in the recipe must be reduced by three tablespoons to make up for the extra liquid in the maple syrup. Maple sugar can be substituted for white sugar in equal parts. In other words, substitute one cup of maple sugar for one cup of white sugar.

Maple syrup and maple sugar are less refined than white sugar so that maple syrup has more minerals and antioxidants than white sugar that may be considered a health benefit. Keeping in mind that maple syrup has just as much sugar as white cane sugar, remember that it also imparts a delicious flavor to cooked and baked foods that cannot be achieved by using sugar!

Does maple syrup have potassium in it?

One tablespoon of maple syrup contains 42 mg of potassium. Not only does maple syrup contain potassium, but it also contains calcium, zinc, manganese, magnesium, and iron. The darker the maple syrup, the more of these minerals it contains. Maple syrup also contains trace amounts of vitamins B1, B2, B5, B6, biotin and folic acid.

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